Egyptians played ancient version of bowling 2000 years back

Egyptians played an ancient version of bowling between the second and third century AD, recent excavations some 56 miles south of capital Cairo by a team of Italian archaeologists has revealed.
A mixture of bowling, billiard and bowls, the game was played at Narmoutheos, in the Fayoum region, in a spacious room, which appears to be the prototype of a modern-day bowling hall, said Edda Bresciani, an Egyptologist at Pisa University, Italy.

Bresciani said the room was part of a structure, perhaps a residential building, which dated from the Roman period, specifically between the second and third century A.D.

"We first discovered a room with a very well-built limestone floor. Then we noticed a lane and two stone balls," Discovery News quoted Bresciani as saying.

The lane measured about 13 feet long, 7.9-inch-wide, and 3.8-inch-deep with a 4.7-inch square opening at its centre. Beneath the opening, Bresciani and colleagues from the Universities of Messina and Trieste, found a large terracotta vase filled with fine sand.

The researchers also noticed that the balls had different diameters - one fitted exactly the square opening, while the others could run smoothly along the lane.

According to Bresciani, the game was played by two players positioned at the two ends of the lane. One would throw the smaller ball, the other the bigger one.

"They would throw the balls at the same time. Most likely, the bigger ball was thrown along the lane to prevent the smaller ball from entering the hole at the centre. When this happened, the smaller ball could be easily recovered from the sand-filled terracotta vase below," Bresciani said.

According to her, the smaller ball, thrown alternatively by each player, determined the winner of the game.

"Obviously, the winner was the player who was able to place the ball into the hole more times," Bresciani said.

Bresciani and colleagues at Pisa University have also tested the game by building a similar lane.

"It works pretty well. It shows that both players must be very skilful and prompt," she said.